It has long been known in the art to provide a trailer hitch assembly for towing a trailer behind a vehicle. Such a trailer hitch assembly incorporates (a) a hitch receiver connected by a frame to the vehicle, (b) a hitch bar including a mounting rack or support and an elongated post adapted for engagement in a receiver box of the hitch receiver and (c) a ball mount head adapted for engagement on the mounting rack. This basic type of trailer hitch assembly is shown in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,482,856 to Reese; U.S. Pat. No. 3,768,837 to Reese; U.S. Pat. No. 4,033,601 to Lindahl et al. and the co-pending patent application Ser. No. 08/138,172 filed Oct. 15, 1993 entitled "Weight Distributing Hitch" also own by the assignee of the present invention.
In the over thirty years since this basic type of trailer hitch assembly was developed, numerous design modifications have been made with a goal of improving the overall product. For example, competitive pressures in the marketplace have led the various manufacturers of trailer hitch assemblies to make a serious effort to control manufacturing costs while at the same time increasing the overall useful service life of the assemblies to benefit the end user. While significant improvements have been made, these competitive pressures are still present and still further improvements relating to the control of costs and the enhancement of performance characteristics and useful service life are desired.